


water lily

by teavious



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-25
Updated: 2016-02-25
Packaged: 2018-05-23 05:17:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6106114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teavious/pseuds/teavious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>{On the day she is born, it is raining}<br/>An Lili and how she evolves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	water lily

On the day she is born, it is raining. It is not that of a rare occurrence in the water tribe, but the clip-clap of water barely has any effect upon the sharp cries of the baby, and her father breathes, relieved. He holds his wife's hand, calm as ever as he places the small and frail body of their daughter in her outstretched, desperate arms.

The rain stops as servants run on the hallway, shouting for warm water and messengers to carry out the news of the delivery. The lady of the tribe cries into her husband's robes, clutching the baby closer, even as the screams intensify.

"I don't want to die," she says, and it's already faint and far-away and Jun-gi's heart breaks right then. He looks at his wife, calm even on her dying bed. A servant enters long after the lady's hand went limp into his hold, and the baby is squeamish in her arms as she cries and cries and cries.

The lord crushes to the floor, as drums start beating outside, celebrating.

 

* * *

 

A nurse takes care of Lili during the day, as he proceeds through a funeral, letters answering and matters of the clan. He can hear her, sometimes, crying, and then the calming hushes of a woman who shouldn't have been there in the first place. He lashes out at servants, sending inkpot after inkpot at their heads when they try to talk about their deceased lady, angrily apologizing in front of his wife's visiting family, bowing lower than it might be wanted from a general. He refuses to let others pity him, effort after effort being put in making things better at least for his part of country, if everyone in his own house is tiptoeing around his sorrow.

At night, Jun-gi asks for everyone to leave, and falls on his mat, resting his head at the crib where his baby rests. Lili rarely sleeps when he comes inside, and no matter how tired he is from the day's events, he always pats her head, marvels at her tiny hands. Through the night, if she squeals in her sleep and wakes, he doesn't request the presence of any of the women waiting outside his room.

He picks her up, with trembling hands, and whispers stories of her mother until she calms down and falls asleep, safe in her father's arms.

 

* * *

 

For Lili, her father becomes the pillar of her existence. As soon as she can walk and talk, she wanders through the household, servants after her, calling out to him so she can only see him and smile.

Jun-gi starts taking her to walks around the compound, on bridges over calm water and on paths surrounded by giant trees. Lili looks up, the sun blinding, and falls out of step. He takes her hand, still so small, but scraped from adventures he hears and thinks about, and urges her forward through a kind tug. She's calmer now, her eyes focused at the river before her, her hold tightening just the slightest when she sees a koi fish swimming.

He thinks of how she sees him now as the best person in the universe, how he is the standard for all of her other acquaintances in her life, and he wants to be better. He thinks of his wife, with her calm such as the water, so fitted to be his bride. How she only had to look once to calm his rage, how her touch made him hers forever, how her happiness was his ultimate goal.

He looks at Lili, and wants her the same.

 

* * *

 

But she lets go of his hand after a while. She starts running around faster than anyone could catch her, she hides and no one else can find her. He sometimes finds leaves and flowers on his window sill, always of another type, always from a place further away than the one before.

Lili comes back, every time wilder, every time better. He looks her over, says nothing and the servants know they have to lock her up. She throws tantrums, always fiercer than before, eyes ablaze and indignation at the injustice downed upon her. He sometimes wonders if his own fury was that blinding, once, for others to consider him worthy of being their lord.

Lili refuses to eat for half a day, paces the room in which she has to stay, loudly complains, and when the guards think she has finally understood her position, she escapes once again.

Her father comments upon the shouting and panic, and waits.

 

* * *

 

The lady waits with her chest puffed and arms crossed over her chest as her father presents her to her two new companions.

There are two bows, a few compliments that she brushes off immediately, and her names sticking to her tongue when she pronounces them the first time.

"Ayura. Tetora."

She continues to leave, only to be followed by two who become like her shadow. She stops in the gardens, complains about their presence there, tries to placate them, to bribe them, and when her only response is "We want to be with lady Lili," she is disarmed and distrustful, but happy nonetheless.

"Like I'd believe you two."

They laugh, each lacing their hands with their lady's.

"We do get money from your father, though," Tetora adds and this time Lili is the one laughing, simply because of how refreshing this is: having someone with her, even in her confinement, their honesty sharp as a blade and wondrous like a new land.

 

* * *

 

Now her father sees her only when she comes back from her expeditions, stoic as ever and if she wants to feel better, Lili imagines that he trusts her enough to allow her this rebelling.

She borrows books from his library, studies the reports from villages, even if later than her father, and in-between hair braiding and instruments playing, she asks Ayura and Tetora's help to fix what she can, though she's only 15 and dreams big enough to fill her whole clan.

The two nod, because though they might be citizens of the Water Tribe, the one they'd first die for is Lady Lili, and then the Lord or the country.

Jun-gi knows of his daughter's doing, and only watches this grown version of the baby he hold in his arms so many years ago, tastes her power by allowing her space and time to do as she pleases, and draws the line before she gets hurt. If there's one thing he doesn't allow, is this: letting anyone do anything to Lady Lili, to this girl he is weirdly proud of, that boasts changes and might even have the guts to do so.

 

* * *

 

She stays proud, head held high even as she defies him, and there is so much in her that reminds him of a ruler, that he can't help but be a bit giddy to see what she can come up with. She comes changed, a red fire of determination blazing all around her, and when she speaks next, she stops asking for permission, just for acknowledgement. Her voice is loud and her desperation to reach him reminds him of her much younger days; he tries not to flinch under her stare.

And then he smiles.

 

* * *

 

Wars are fought, inside and outside of The Water Tribe. His daughter diligently rides between cities, overseeing the recovering from the Nadai drug after the Kai Empire stops targeting their land, and she never even once misses the capital, where a different self has once resided.

She eats just enough to get her by, giving to the poor and to those that fled the war what she refuses to have, and her robes get simpler and simpler, less decorated, less revealing. On An Lili's mind, there is only the image of some better times. She rolls up her sleeves, tucks her hair behind her ears and works towards achieving that goal, in any way possible.

After all the people return to their own houses and rooms, she takes Ayura and Tetora with her, sharp weapons in each of their hands, and she trains until she can't stand anymore, and then trains some more. If any of the two offers a pause because of a twisted angle or deeper cut, she only stands higher and continues trying more and more, on her own.

In the end, she prefers daggers and shuriken, and even in the heart of her own people, she dresses herself first in her trusty blades, and afterwards in the tricky dresses.

Her father gives her one of the daggers that have been in the family for generations, decorated with gold and pearls, for her 20th birthday. She sports a scar on the left side of her chin and she's unafraid and grateful to see him well, after he'd led most of their troops into the battle, after he held so many treaties with so many enemies.

Before he leaves again, her daughter comes visiting the capital for the first time in three years, and she bows deeply in front of him, kissing his hand, and thanking him for bringing her into this world.

 

* * *

 

She sees Yona several times, and she bubbles with so much joy and love whenever they visit her between their travels. She sees her two friends falling so easily in discussion with "the monsters of Kouka", and they all speak through the night, joyous and fierce and alive.

 

* * *

 

In the same year Yona refuses regency, Lili accepts to become the head of the Water Tribe, even as the other clans' generals find it awkward to have her between them for a while. She laughs along the banters between Earth and Sky, and compliments Geun-Tae's wife tea. She likes the Wind's general the best, because he's respectfully wary of her and refuses to be brought into embarrassment by the fact she is a woman. She grins a little, a hand ruffling his hair like they are children, and from then onwards there is rarely one without the other, somehow a mocking pair of another lady, another warrior.

She eyes the King with a glare that she hopes will always remind him why he is on that throne, that is also thanks to her that he still rules. Su-won nods in recognition, not even for a second making her unwelcomed at this table of loud men, and when she first shouts for silence and attention, a cup somewhere in the room shatters.

Geun-Tae pats her back, grinning and she watches them all, sharing their heart's wish.

 

* * *

 

She receives a congratulations gift from someone in the Fire Tribe and the hair decoration, bright red, makes her want to both weep and laugh.

She sits at a table for a whole evening, paper white in front of her, thinking what she can reply to Tae-Jun, this person who shares the secret of a queen's fate.

Lili sighs, draws a water lily and writes only "It'd be wonderful if we could meet."

 

* * *

 

He’s the one who comes riding upon her requests. He finds her knees-deep into a river, the sun brightly shimmering, young children screaming and running all around her, women washing their celebration clothes in the river. There is music coming from neighboring houses, and the market is abuzz with people setting up their business. The place is lively and colorful and warm, molding after lady’s laugh.

She wears the hair pin from him, and it makes Tae-Jun smile, half-ashamed and half-proud. Lili falls into his arms like she’s known him for years, holding his rough hands in hers, kissing his knuckles who worked so hard, just like hers. There’s the passing of a secret gaze between the two of them, that of the unbreakable, and then he extends his arm for her to take it and they sit down for tea and dinner.

They talk of who they’ve been – and their voice trembles. They talk of what they did - and they beam like the sun. They talk of the queen, and Lili asks him to stay for a little bit longer, because she always comes.

 

* * *

 

Yona doesn’t know who to hug and greet first, and they’re both close to tears, even as they hold hands when they welcome her. The dragons easily put Lili down when they hug her at the same time, and she hates that she doesn’t have arms long enough to fit them all near her heart. Tae-Jun cries in Yona’s arms, and when Yoon promises them all food, it’s the only thing that stops the emotional meeting.

Hak sits at her left, tasting the title general next to her name, and when bells ring in the middle of the night, signaling next day’s celebration, Lili asks one thing of Yona.

“Dance.”

And one hair pin that couldn’t be thrown even now catches the sun in its stones, sends small rainbows over the faces of dizzy spectators, and when Lili claps and cheers, her heart booms in the same rhythm.

 

**Author's Note:**

> You can also find me on [tumblr](http://teavious.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
